Coasting 2-0 with 88 minutes on the clock, we gave no respect to our opponents whatsoever.

Once 2-0 up we just strolled around the pitch thinking that we had won. Martin O’Neill cannot blame tiredness this time as we all know he rested eight of them to prepare for the Premier games.

After watching that performance we will not make the Champions League, we are still too close to Arsenal who must now be rubbing their hands in delight as they know we are panicking.

O’Neill has some serious team changes to think about before we play Man City as Carlos Cuellar was awful on Sunday. Every time he attempted to pass he either gave the ball away or kicked it out of play.

He has still not adjusted to the English game having played for Rangers, which is basically an inferior league.

What is wrong with Gabby? He could have easily made it 3-1 having received a perfect cross from Carew towards the end of the game. Every time he received the ball he over-kicked the pass and lost possession.

I think it’s time he was rested as he is getting too big for his boots now that he has got an England cap – very much like Ashley Young. Since being called up by Capello he has lost that edge to his game and is being sussed out by opponents far too easily.

I see that O’Neill is paying for the cost of a meal for the hundreds who went to Moscow but what about the rest of us who turned up against Stoke? I feel I was robbed. What am I going to get? A refund on my season ticket?

The way we are going we will end the season with nothing. We are out of all the cups and heading for a difficult March, with trips to Anfield and Old Trafford just around the corner.

Let’s hope O’Neill starts to get it right otherwise he might as well go.

He is too stubborn to admit that he gets team selection wrong.

We fans are not stupid, although managers and players like to think we are.

D GARSTANG, Castle Bromwich

Sometimes I'm ashamed to be a Villa fan > > >

SOMETIMES I’m ashamed to be a Villa fan. Not because of the team, or the manager, but because of the fans.

To boo your own team is disgusting and unacceptable, especially in Sunday’s circumstances. You can complain about the fact the team let in two late goals all you like, but they are going to be just as gutted about the result as us fans.

How on earth is booing them going to help build up their confidence for the next match?

For the past couple of weeks, with results not going our way and the UEFA Cup fiasco, some Villa fans have come out to criticise the team and the manager at a time when we really should be getting behind them and cheering them on.

Do people really forget that before O’Neill and Lerner arrived we had finished 16th in the table in a season when relegation was a genuine threat? We had finished on our lowest ever points tally for two seasons in a row, Villa Park was a graveyard.

Since then we have gone from 16th, to 10th, to sixth and European football and to challenging the top four and potentially get Champions League football, and that isn’t good enough? What is wrong with people?

We are coming to the end of the season and we have a genuine chance of achieving something big. Now is the time that us fans should be behind the team instead of moaning at any given opportunity. We should be giving them the praise they deserve and cheering them into the top four. Come on the Villa!

B MATTHEWS, Erdington

Why are season ticket holders being treated this way? > > >

I WAS one of the people who travelled to Hamburg for the UEFA Cup (probably a weaker team than Moscow) and have seen all the home games as well.

I am more concerned how season ticket holders are treated. In times when tickets for certain games are sold for as little as £10, you have to question the value of buying season tickets, especially for next season as the final date to guarantee my seat has been brought forward to April 25 (a month before the season has finished).

If I use the instalment plan the final payment will be taken in July (a month before the new season starts) as opposed to last year when it was October. I am a member of the away scheme, which has restrictions added to it next season as well.

I am one of the many people in the Midlands just about hanging on to a job in the motor industry and these changes in times of economic downturn will throw a serious question mark over whether I will be able to afford one next year.

I think we need to remember that while we have a manager to take us in the direction we need to go, the fans are as equally important in achieving this. Let’s make sure we continue to allow them to do so!

I’m afraid to report that Martin O’Neill’s naivety on Sunday cost us two points. Why on earth did he not bring a sub on at the scoring of our second goal?

Gardner to sit in front of the back four, for example, thus enabling us to have a chance of keeping the ball and killing the game. If we do qualify for Europe next season he will need a large injection of nous!

ASTONVILLAONWARDANDUPWARD,

via email

HAD Martin O’Neill’s great mentor Brian Clough seen the Villa team give away a two-goal lead in three minutes his only words would have been ‘You need bloody shooting!’. He would have been correct as well.

J SUTTON, Erdington

Sorry Martin, dinner doesn't quite cut it > > >

VILLA fans have a right to be furious, and a dinner doesn’t quite cut it.

Football fans up and down the country are being short-changed by a rotation system that dumbs down certain trophies but doesn’t reduce the price at the turnstiles.

If clubs don’t want to play in certain competitions then don’t, but don’t kid the supporters who pay hundreds of pounds a year to watch their teams and deserve better.

S VAUGHAN, Yardley

SURELY last week was a chance for some of our fringe players to really impress.

Gardner, Harewood and Sidwell were all average and this is where the likes of Villa and Man Utd differ.

The quality and hunger at both clubs are a million miles apart.

M PRETCIL, Hall Green

THE UEFA or FA Cup final would have been a superb occasion for all fans.

It is something we dream about at the start of August every year. The Champions League final is merely a pipe dream. Let’s get real, Villa... we can’t even beat Stoke!

B LANE, Shirley

WAS Mr O’Neill correct with his decision to leave the nucleus of Villa’s first team at home?

I guess time will tell. Certainly the Villa following would have liked to have known the management’s intentions before they planned their journey.

In today’s climate people have the right to a little courtesy as money and time are both hard to come by.

Secondly, the effect on team morale must surely be questioned when the big guns are left at home. Have Luke Young and Davies not been two of our most consistant performers? How must they be feeling?

Thirdly, with decent investment in January, Villa might still be competing in all competitions instead of looking to drop two of them.

I back Mr O’Neill most of the time. He, along with Mr Lerner, has been a revelation and, to a large degree, is still picking up the pieces from the last 20 years.

R HAWKES, Dickens Heath

I WOULD like to show my support for the people who are annoyed at Martin O’Neill’s team selection.

We all appreciate he was resting some of the players for the upcoming league games but why enter something you do not want to win?

People will say he didn’t know we were going to be where we are in the league but if you said to me ‘would you like to finish fifth or sixth and win, or even get, to the UEFA Cup final?’, I would have taken that straight away.

You’re only remembered for the things you win. If you asked the players if they would like to be playing in Europe or having a rest, I would be very surprised if they said having a rest.